Why Drugs Should Be Legalized Essay Research

reduced. According to Richard J. Bonnie, there was no correlation between the

laxative laws and increased use. The only drug that saw any kind of increased

use was marijuana, a basically harmless drug.

One must also consider the economic possibilities that accompany the

decriminalization of drugs. The nation’s GNP (Gross National Product) only

counts legal transactions. If drugs were legalized, a significant effect could

be seen on the GNP helping to make our economy stronger in relation to other

countries. Profits could be taken out of the drug dealers hands and into the

hands of an honest entrepreneur. Companies could manufacture and market their

drug-related products and pharmacists could sell the products allowing both to

make a considerable profit. The advent of drug stores, similar to liquor stores,

would help the economy by introducing new businesses into the society. The

government could levy a high excise tax on the drugs and could thereby make a

considerable amount of money that they could put into education or something

more important.

The War on Drugs is also a strict violation of our rights as Americans. One of

the greatest things about this country is our ability to live our lives as we

see fit. The War on Drugs directly threatens this right. Under “zero tolerance”

laws, the government has seized thousands of cars, boats, and other vehicles.

These seizures take place without search warrants, probable cause, and due

process. This property is then sold at public auctions with the proceeds going

to hire more police and to buy more weapons.

The War on Drugs has become just that-a war. In December 1989, 20,000 U.S.

troops invaded Panama, capturing Manuel Noreiga, at a cost of 1,000 innocent

Panamanians killed. This action was in total disregard of international law and

policy. In July 1990, Newsweek ran an expose on a secret Pentagon plan to invade

South America in an attempt to destroy the drug trade. Such an action could have

led to the death of many innocent civilians, the economic destruction on South

America, an increase of taxes and an increase of inflation in the states.

Most of the major arguments applied against the decriminalization of drugs deal

with the notion that drugs are bad, dangerous, and harmful to society. It

becomes difficult to praise the use of such drugs as crack, heroin, and cocaine.

Instead, looking at it objectively, one can come to understand that without

legalization, the drug use will still exist. Decriminalizing drugs is just a

form of damage control that will hopefully lessen the negative externalities on

society. The aforementioned arguments, however, cannot even be applied to the

case for the decriminalization of marijuana and hemp products.

Marijuana does nor cause crime or aggressive behavior. In fact, the use of

marijuana makes an individual more passive and less likely to engage in any form

of violent behavior. Marijuana is not physically addictive and its psychological

dependence is less than that of most legal drugs in use now. It does not lead to

the use of harder drugs. In fact, most marijuana users use no other drugs except

alcohol.

“At least forty million Americans have tried marijuana at least once and at

least fifteen million Americans continue to use it on a regular basis. . .The

overwhelming percentage (perhaps ninety percent) of marijuana users use the drug

only for recreational purposes. . .It is well established that the moderate,

recreational use of marijuana-in the doses and frequencies with which it is

customarily used-presents no risk of physical or psychological harm to the user,

over either the short or the long term.”

Putting aside the fact that marijuana is not a bad or even dangerous drug, one

must look at what marijuana and hemp can do for our society. When posed with the

question, “if you could have any choice, what would be the ideal way to stop or

reverse the greenhouse effect?” Steve Rawlings, the highest ranking officer in

the U.S. Department of Agriculture, responded, “Stop cutting down the trees and

stop using fossil fuels.” The problem that Rawlings foresaw was the lack of a

viable substitute for wood, for paper, and for fossil fuels.

The solution? There is “such a plant that could substitute for all wood pulp,

paper, all fossil fuels, would make most of our fibers naturally, would make

everything from dynamite to plastic, grows in all 50 states, and that 1 acre of

it would replace 4.1 acres of trees, and that if you used about 6% of the land

to raise it as an energy crop-even on our marginal lands, this plant would

produce all 75 quadrillion billion BTU’s needed to run America each year.”

The problem? This plant is the hemp plant-the very plant that marijuana comes

from. Marijuana, and thusly, the hemp plant is illegal. The absurd fact is that

the plant that could possibly save the world from global warming cannot be grown

because of a harmless drug. The response given by Dr. Gary Evans of the U.S.

Dept of Agriculture and Science, the man in charge of stopping the global

warming trend, was, “if you really want to save the planet with hemp, then [hemp

activists] would find a way to grow it without the narcotic top-and then you

could use it.” This ignorance by the U.S. government is not only frightening but

discerning.

Marijuana also has many practical medical purposes. The Medical Plant Garden, a

part of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is currently working

on a medicine that is made from the active ingredient in marijuana (THC)}. This

capsule, consisting of 95% THC could be used to replace Marinol, which combats

nausea and vomiting problems in cancer patients and fights the wasting sickness

suffered by most AIDS patients. Marijuana can also be used to alleviate symptoms

of certain diseases such as glaucoma, cancer, and AIDS. Only a small handful of

the people, though, have been prescribed the drug when thousands have applied.

DEA administrative law Judge Francis L. Young called marijuana “one of the

safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” He recommended that

marijuana be made legally available for medical purposes. This would be a

considerable change in the drugs legal status. Young feels that the drug could

aid many patients suffering from nausea-inducing chemotherapy and muscle spasms

of multiple sclerosis. Young wrote in a 69 page ruling, “The evidence in this

record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving

the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under

medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA

to continue to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of

this substance in light of the evidence in this record.”

Israeli scientists had recently found a skeleton of a fourth century woman who

they believed died in childbirth. Scientists found what they believe to be ashes

or the burned remains of a cannabis plant, suggesting that the ancient woman

used marijuana as a method of reducing labor pains.

N.O.R.M.L (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) is a fully

recognized organization that lobbies for the “removal of criminal penalties for

the individual who uses marijuana in private” as it is “consistent with

traditional American values of the right to privacy, personal choice, and

individual freedom.” N.O.R.M.L.’s Board of Directors reads like a “Who’s Who” in

the world of science. Such distinguished members include Dr. Kary Mullis, the

winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in chemistry; Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Harvard

Medical School Professor; Dr. Louis Lasagna, chairman of the National Academy of

Sciences committee and dean of the Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences at

Tufts University; Ann Druyan, secretary of the Federation of Scientists;

Druyan’s husband, Carl Sagan, co-producer of the PBS series Cosmos; and many

more.

Marijuana, in addition to not being a dangerous drug, has been documented to

have practical medical purposes and environmental purposes. The legalization of

marijuana-a drug that the criminalization of is so impossible to enforce-would

not only not harm society, but could actually benefit it.

The question then becomes, how should legalization be approached? In addition to

decriminalization, the government must understand that education is also of the

utmost importance. Rehabilitation and prevention awareness programs are very

important in preventing widespread drug use. One must understand that the drug

addict is not a criminal but a victim. Incarceration is not the solution. “The

limits of criminal sanctions must be recognized and not applied to private

social conduct that constitutes no direct harm to others.”

Legalizing drugs would allow them to be available to those who would benefit

from their medical use. Research would also be encouraged as scientists could

search for new and practical uses of drugs. There are many wonderful uses of

drugs that have not yet been identified or perfected and with expanded research,

we could discover these new possibilities.

Of course, some restrictions would have to be set. Likely, an age restriction

would have to be adopted. Restricting the use of drugs to adults only, and

educating the youth of the potential dangers should help curb adolescent abuse.

Prohibiting acts such as driving a vehicle under the influence of a mind-

altering substance would likewise be necessary. Another necessity would be the

destruction of all those with prior criminal records due to the arrest or

conviction on drug-related charges. Of course, the right of the non-smoker would

have to be paramount. In a public facility, non-smoking areas would have to be

set up.

A system of drug regulation that would include the above provisions, public

health and agricultural regulations, and a form of taxation would discourage

abuse, protect public health and safety, reduce crime, and raise revenue.

“Regulation is the inevitable replacement of prohibition.”